Decline in Religious Observance among Catholics and Protestants (1960-1989)

Indicators of religious observance declined noticeably in the period 1960 to 1989. The Protestant Church lost 3.5 million members, and the number of Protestant baptisms and weddings was cut in half. The Catholic Church was able to ward off a similar reduction in membership, but the number of Catholic baptisms and weddings still declined steeply, as did mass attendance.

At the end of 1989, about 26.7 million Catholics were living in West Germany. They made up about 43 percent of the total population. This share has remained virtually unchanged since 1950. The number of Catholics declined from 1974 to 1988, but has been rising again since 1988. Until that point, the influx of Catholic foreigners into Germany – mostly guest workers and their families – had more than compensated for declining baptism figures and the growing number of people who left the Church at the beginning of the 1970s (1970: 69,000). In 1989, 93,010 people left the Church.

The Catholic Church in West Germany is divided into twenty-two dioceses (five archdioceses and seventeen dioceses). In 1989, there were 12,436 parishes and other places of spiritual guidance. About 12,200 diocesan priests and religious priests worked in pastoral care in 1979; there was one pastoral caregiver, on average, for every 2,200 believers. An acute shortage of priests, however, meant that not all parishes could have their own. Another 7,300 priests were active in other fields of work.

Basic information on church life is shown in the table below. Between 1960 and 1989 participation in Sunday Communion dropped by about 5.8 million churchgoers, or 49 percent. In 1989, an average of 23 percent of all Catholics attended Sunday Mass. Far more participate in the Eucharist on holidays or the Church’s main feast days

The Catholic Church in West Germany

Year

Catholics

Baptisms

Marriages

Church Funerals

Participants in Sunday Communion

in thousands

1960

24,710

473

214

262

11,895

1970

27,192

370

164

296

10,159

1980

26,720

258

125

288

7,769

1985

26,308

254

113

286

6,800

1987

26,306

270

114

278

6,430

1989

26,746

282

113

281

6,092

[Figures from the secretariat of the German Bishops’ Conference, Statistics Department, Bonn]

II. The Protestant Church

The Protestant Church in Germany [Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland] had 25.1 million members in late 1989; this represents roughly 40 percent of the total population and about 44 percent of the German population. In the 1950 census, these percentages were still around 51 percent each.

Protestant Church in West Germany

Year

Members

Baptisms

Marriages

Funerals

Participants in Sunday Eucharist

in thousands

1963

28,796

476

204

335

7,727

1970

28,480

346

156

369

6,813

1980

26,104

222

94

347

9,056

1987

25,413

239

97

324

9,669

1989

25,132

252

101

321

9,319

[Figures from the Protestant Church in Germany (EKG), Hanover, not including the Protestant Free Churches (Freikirchen)]